[Ads-l] _hard leg_ "any random guy whatsoever," postdating

[Wilson Gray]

This should have been sent, first. That way, the subsequent comment would
have made more sense. :-(

In StL BE, from ca. 1940 - HDAS: 1946, though it adds "esp. if tough" -
this was in such common use that "soft leg" was occasionally used as a term
for chicks, but it never caught on.

Mona White's Diary - Page 88
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=130451031X
David Myers - 2013 - ‎Preview
“Who's the hard-leg you was talkin' 'bout the other night when you said you
had a man?

>From the UD, 2008:

_hard legs_
A term which old-timers ([like] my dad) use to refer to a bunch of guys, or
so he puts it, "niggas."

Sounds right to me! Dad may be a fellow-St. Louisan. Of course, that "so"
instead of "as" is more uncalled-for syntactic change.

My comment is motivated by:
The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1317372522
Tom Dalzell, ‎Terry Victor - 2015
1961 hard leg noun an experienced, cynical prostitute US, 1967 • “That old
whore is a 'hard leg.'”

As the failed introduction of "soft leg" suggests, in The Lou, there was no
connection made between "hard leg" and women at all.
'
--
- Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org